A Fels Naptha Sponsored Podcast

from home town sketches

Today, we present the flip side of a disc heard last week on the blog featuring the series “Home Town Sketches”. This rare program was syndicated circa 1936 and sponsored by Fels-Naptha laundry soap.
“Home Town Sketches” was heard four times each week and took a light-hearted look at life in the small town of Centerville. The plots centered around the owner of the radio station, his family and friends. Program 50 in the series takes the form of a “broadcast” from Lem Weatherby’s station FELS, where he gives us news about Captain Alberry and Anna Watts wedding, a commercial for a local furniture dealer and mortician, and a poem for a sick shut-in.

Home Town Sketches

Elsie Fels: 1930

This could be our Mrs. Fels. The Fels' came from Virginia originally. Perhaps she was married to the namesake son or the grandson of the the Fels' family, Joseph. The daughter's name of Barbara? There were Barbara's in the Fels family before. Maybe this namesake decided to seek another means of livelihood by coming to New York? Here he manages an oil business, a gas station? btw that(319 E. 125th Street) address is currently a gas station on First Avenue and 125th Street. Maybe in later life Mrs. Fels was a widow and worked as a substitute teacher.

Pre-Detergents Wash Days: Fels Naptha

At PS 177 we had a substitute teacher named Mrs. Fels who told us she was part of the Fels family made famous by this soap. Joseph Fels seemed like a pretty interesting character. He supported the single tax made popular by Henry George
Fels Naptha Soap